N's PAINT WORLD

It's always heart-warming to get hand-made thanks from kids .

A li'l' thank-you card for the one I got from some great kids from a kindergarten in Wakayama. No computer needed : some color pencils, a black felt-tip pen and a few minutes are all it takes.

Another cut painted paper light work — an old-fashioned sort of robot — quickly done in class for the example's sake. We used the scraps from last time . Nothing much to say about it !

Since there has been a death in my Japanese family-in-law, I am not supposed to send New-Year cards this time. Still, I thought I would send Christmas cards, and made one the other day, using the same — quite fun, I have to say — technique as last year : potato printing . Yes, just like when you were in kindergarten. The basics are similar to normal printing, stamping or seals. That is pretty easy too : 1) take a potato 2) cut it in half 3) carve it with whatever you see fit (a cutter this time) and be careful to do it in "negative" as well as not to cut yourself right 4) spread paint on whichever surface 5) dip the potato in it 6) potato-print on a card (hand-made Japanese paper is great for that) 7) all done I wish I could have shown you what the carved potato halves looked like, but it seems my wife has thrown them away already. Never mind. Have fun. A merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all.

'Tis quite easy to make cut painted paper pictures : 1) you paint 2) you cut 3) you paste 4) all done These animals were made, as said before, after Eric Carle — can't remember the name of the books. I picked in three different ones. Mediocre and rough craftmanship, since it was only meant as a guide for a kid.

Time-killer & gift-making. Long time no see. Some time ago, I made a few abstract bookmarks with cut painted papers. Here are two of them. I don't think I have them anymore : birthday presents, I assume. My memory doesn't work too well these days. Recently, I've been making animals with the same technique, after Eric Carle, for the summer assignment of one of the Japanese children students of mine. I'll post them here some day soon. I hope all is well.